The question is, ‘Are you happy?’
There are other questions of course, questions it would be equally useful to dwell on, questions such as ‘How can I be good?’, or ‘What do I need to know?’, ‘What can I forget?’ (names? dates?), ‘How often does a person need to be told?’; ‘Which way fate?’, ‘Is this really what you expected?’, ‘What more can I do to promote a just society?’, ‘Is more less?’, ‘I mean really, what you expected?’, ‘In what state, if there was such a thing, would I find my eternal soul?’
These are big questions; questions to which great minds have dedicated a life-time’s head-scratching, over which much tea has been slurped, and many a pair of shoulders hunched. Then there are others, smaller if in their own way no less pressing questions, questions such as, ‘How hard should I work?’, and ‘Relative, say, to a butcher, how much money should I make?’, and ‘Who pays?’, and then again, ‘Who pays?’, and ‘If this is not what I expected, then what did I expect?, and ‘How do I measure up?’, and ‘In what circumstances is it appropriate to discriminate?’, and ‘What price frankness?’, and ‘When is it appropriate to make an offering?’. A particular favourite of mine is, ‘Should I choose my words carefully?’, or rather, ‘Should I choose my words carefully, or with great care?’, or ‘Jesus, how much does a person really have to put it up with?’, and ‘Who audits the auditors?’, ‘And then again, who pays?’. ‘Trust: good or bad?’ ‘Sincerity: good or bad?’ ‘Weaselling out of things: how bad is that?’ ‘What, if anything, has poetry got to do with politics?’ ‘Should I choose my words carefully?’ ‘Do I deserve a big house?’ ‘What price frankness?’ ‘Does all that alters in fact persist?’ ‘Is it true that poetry never made anything happen?’ It is true, of course, poetry never made anything happen. (Politicians at this point might want to turn to page 34.) ‘How comfortable are you?’ ‘Do you feel relaxed in your universe?’ ‘Are there some days you feel more than a little hemmed in, like you can’t quite breathe, as if there’s no possibility of expansion?’ ‘Looking back at it now, is this what you’d been given to expect?’ ‘Do you fit the bill?’ ‘Does the bill fit you?’ ‘If you were drawing up the bill now, what would it look like?’ ‘Who pays?’ ‘How come some people pay more than others?’ ‘At what point in human history did it all go wrong?’ ‘If called upon to represent yourself, I mean really represent yourself, clothes and everything, what would you say?’ ‘Trust: good or bad?’ ‘Subtlety: good or bad?’ ‘Taking care: good? or bad?’